Free speech includes the freedom to mock humorless liberals. During Free Speech Week, we've devoted the NewsBusters Podcast to the current state of speech in America -- which is far better than the depressing picture in Europe.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon joined the show along with Dan Schneider, vice president of MRC's Free Speech America project. One of the Bee's recent leftist-mocking headlines was "Hitler Brings Peace to Israel."
One of our favorite Bee stings was an obvious satire in 2018. The headline was “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication.” But somehow, the dopes at Snopes.com flagged that. They claimed “Although it should have been obvious....some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally.”
Dillon underlined this example on how social-media sites like Facebook began crushing their reach based on obvious jokes. Facebook warned them: "Repeat offenders will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertise removed.”
The Babylon Bee found its Twitter account locked in 2022 for naming transgender Biden appointee Rachel Levine "Man Of The Year." It came in response to USA Today naming Levine as a "Woman of the Year" for liberal advocacy as "the highest-ranking openly transgender official in the United States." It came with the Orwellian headline "Be true to yourself."
Dillon told us they had an internal debate over whether to post this humor, knowing that it was likely to lead to punishment for "harassment" over "gender identity." They decided it was worth the cost to their bottom line to make an issue out of censorship.
Seth Dillon won our Bulldog Award as the Outstanding Social Media Personality in 2024. We discuss how MRC gave the late Charlie Kirk our Free Speech Award in 2025, and how Dillon now feels he has to have a free-speech debate with people on the right.
Enjoy the podcast on video below, or listen to the audio here.
